1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to apparatus for manufacturing wire beads and more particularly to apparatus for the continuous manufacture of annular helix wire beads which can be used in the manufacture of motor vehicle tire.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of a machine for helically winding wire upon a ring-shaped core wire has been proposed heretofore, such as for example, within U.S. Pat. No. 1,570,821. This patent discloses means for accomplishing the helical winding of wire upon a ring-shaped core wire by rotating the ring-shaped core wire in its peripheral direction while simultaneously rotating the winding wire drum relative to the core wire so that the drum will rotate around a portion of the core wire and will also pass through the ring of the core wire. The helix bead manufacturing process, itself based upon the method of the above invention, has proven, however, not only inefficient and such as to exhibit a low degree of production, but has also been unsuitable for practicing such a continuous manufacturing process as to serially or sequentially feed wire stocks, one after another, and to also successively remove completed wire beads.
Recently, a wire bead manufacturing machine has reportedly been developed which would be so constructed as to spirally wind wire, drawn out successively from a wire drum, upon the surface of a ring-shaped core wire by enabling the wire drum to rotate so as to pass around a portion of the core wire, and through the ring thereof, by the use of a wire-winding device which operates simultaneously with the core wire so the latter is rotated in the peripheral direction.
It seems that automatization of this machine has thereafter obtained some appreciable results, however, an adequate solution to the problem of having means for supplying the ring-shaped core wire and removing the completed article subsequent to the winding process has never been reported. As a result, the shutdown time in the operation and the low workability of the apparatus still fail to elevate the productivity as might have been expected.
Heretofore, a core wire guide roller for keeping a ring-shaped core wire freely rotatable has been pivoted upon a shelf-like support frame fixedly secured within a preselected portion of a manufacturing machine body, and a wire drum has also been disposed at a predetermined location within a winding device of the same machine. Various auxiliary operations, except the wire-winding operation proper to the wire bead manufacturing machine, namely, the preparatory operation prior to winding such as for example, the setting of the core wire onto its guide roller, take-up or supplying of the winding wire to the wire drum, and winding up of the winding wire end to the core wire clamp, and the like, as well as removal of the completed articles from the guide roller after the conclusion of the winding operation, have been conducted as parts of the wire-winding operation and upon the same machine.
Such kinds of operations conducted upon one and the same machine, however, have come to be obviously subjected to various restrictions and difficulties with regard to spatial relationships, resulting in the decline of productivity, machine shut-downs during preparatory operations prior to winding and removal operations after completion of the articles, and further gross hinderances upon the automatization of the machinery itself.